From the obscure to the incredibly common...the COSMO variations!

These days, I think even more people (well, perhaps I should amend that to say more women) are drinking Cosmopolitans than when Sex and The City was all the rage on the wee and the not-so-wee (as in silver) screens.  As an official cocktail snob, I guess I'm supposed to look down my nose at 'em, but I just can't.  A Cosmo may not be a fascinating drink, but it's a good one if it's mixed right.  I'll admit to drinking them and enjoying them.  They are simple, pretty, and they get the job done was well as any other sour.

I have a basic Cosmo recipe that I've used for years, which is essentially the Harrington one from the 90's classic Cocktail.  It's this:

1 and 1/2 oz vodka

1/2 oz fresh lime juice

3/4 oz Cointreau

a splash of cranberry juice cocktail (but I use more like 1/2 to 3/4 oz)

Shake hard over ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with half or a quarter of a lime wheel.

This makes a good drink, but I've found you CAN improve upon it.  First off, since my preference for more cranberry juice than he calls for can set the drink off in the sweet department, it's good to start with a little less Cointreau and taste before you put in the full amount.  EVEN BETTER, THOUGH is to purchase some cranberry bitters.  Fee Brothers is making a nice one (search on Amazon.com if you don't see it in your local gourmet grocery), and I have some local tiny-brand stuff a friend brought me down from Maine that's also tasty.  Try the recipe with a shake or even two of bitters in it, and it gets much more interesting.  Bitters pulls some flavor to the fore out of the Cointreau that you might not notice without it.

Harrington himself suggests trying a citrus flavored vodka with this drink.  Also not a bad idea.  Lemon OR orange would work (remember, Cointreau is orange-flavored).

Another suggestion, but you probably don't want to do this AND add cranberry bitters to this variation unless you're really prepared to experiment with the sweet/sour balance of the drink: try unsweetened cranberry juice. Our local snotty food mart stocks it, and it makes for a nicely dry drink.  You'll probably want to start with the original Harrington suggestion of just a wee splash of the cran and taste the first time you do it.

At Area 24, we play the hits when the hits are called for--not very often, but sometimes something is popular because it's just a damn good record.  Too often and you start sounding like every other station in the world.  Cosmos are like that.  

Join me on the air Thursday at 4 and we'll possibly use that thought as a metaphor...or maybe I'll think of something else.  But I'll be talking Cosmo, one way or the other...